Comment from an evangelical presbyterian perspective and an orthodox confessionally reformed outlook.

Saturday, 20 December 2014

Integrity,
Honesty and Casuistry

When I joined the Free Church of Scotland I did not at that
time seek to transfer my ministerial credentials to the denomination. In part the reason for this was the vows I
would need to take as a minister, (they were slightly different as an elder). I interpreted the ministerial vows as a
commitment, not merely to the practice of exclusive psalmody, but to the
principle of exclusive psalmody.

I may have been wrong in my interpretation, but given that
this was how I read the vows it would have shown a lack of personal integrity
if, believing them to say, this I nevertheless committed myself to a principle
that in fact I did not hold. I had no problems with the practice of exclusive
psalmody, but I could not in honesty say that this was an inviolable principle.

The situation has now changed and the Free Church no longer
holds to either the principle or the practice of exclusive psalmody. Individual congregations are free to choose,
if they wish, to supplement psalms with other scriptural praise. (They are not free to supplant psalms; those
must still be used alongside scriptural hymns.)

It seems, according to some, that I was a fool to be so
conscientious in regard to ministerial vows, at least in the view of some in
the Church of Scotland. Given that this
denomination is ready to embrace active homosexuals in civil partnerships, and
this legislation will become church law in May, it has been asked how professed
evangelicals can take the required ordination and induction vows.

In particular:

“Do you
promise to seek the peace and unity of this Church; to uphold its doctrine,
worship, government, and to cherish a spirit of love to all your brothers and
sisters in Christ?”

The “government” of this denomination means, among others
things, the acceptance of active homosexuals in office. (It equally means the acceptance of
non-converted office-bearers, non trinitarians,
heretics who deny the deity of Christ, his virgin conception, his penal
substitution, and his bodily resurrection.)

However we are told by one Church of Scotland evangelical
spokesman:

“Even if the overture goes
through GA in May, I can keep these vows with complete integrity and still be
completely faithful to Scripture. I can even promise with utter integrity ‘to
be subject IN THE LORD … to the General Assembly’ – which is, of course,
something quite different from being ‘subject to the General Assembly’ - even a
GA at which I would record my dissent were the overture to go through”

This is a Jesuitical casuistry! The law of the church will be
clear, but there is no obligation to keep this law, even if I vow to do so,
because I am only subject “in the Lord” to the laws that I accept. Presbyterian discipline has been replaced by
rampant individualism. Worse, integrity has been replaced with dishonesty.

There is not even a suggestion that I should publicly affirm
before presbytery those laws that I do not consider “in the Lord”, therefore
exempt from keeping. For example, “I
wish to make it clear that I believe that unrepented active homosexual conduct
is a damning sin and will not recognise the status of any office-bearer who
practices or promotes such sin…” No, I
should keep quiet, cross my fingers, keep my opinions private, swallow my
integrity and take these vows.

Some might call it casuistry.
I will be more forthright: it is lying, and lying is a sin.

The Westminster Confession (Chapter 22) makes this clear:

IV. An
oath is to be taken in the plain and common sense of the words, without
equivocation or mental reservation. It can not oblige to sin; but in anything
not sinful, being taken, it binds to performance, although to a man's own hurt:
nor is it to be violated, although made to heretics or infidels.

V. A vow
is of the like nature with a promissory oath, and ought to be made with the
like religious care, and to be performed with the like faithfulness.

I do not wish to advise the Church of Scotland, but perhaps
they ought to enquire of slippery evangelicals about to take vows if they are
doing so in the plain and usual sense of the words, or whether they are
reserving to themselves the decision as to which church laws they intend to
keep.

Thursday, 18 December 2014

Grace and
Geography

Now that the dust has settled and the majority of Church of
Scotland presbyteries have voted to endorse ministers in active same-sex relationships,
it is interesting to see how the church establishment view those who voted
against this endorsement of sexual immorality.

The acting principal clerk for the Kirk, Rev Dr George Whyte,
is quoted as saying:

“Many
ministers already allow and conduct the blessing of civil partnerships and
people who have decided to commit to one another."

“However,
this is not happening in a more, let’s say Herbidean setting, but each time we
have voted, the gap has grown wider in favour of the proposal.”

I am not sure whether this is simply an ethnic slur or the contemptuous
arrogance of the liberal urban elite for those rural bumpkins who have not yet
adopted the new program for sexual liberation.
It may be both! As an ethnic
insult it suggests that the west coast Gaelic areas of Scotland are not as
advanced as those areas where ministers conduct same sex civil
partnerships. Not very P.C.

It is, however, fairly accurate in terms of geography. This Hebridean fringe were also the power
house for the formation of the current Free Church of Scotland in 1900. At that
time some sixty-three congregations refused to join in the union with the
United Presbyterian Church, with most being found in the Gaelic-speaking
districts of Scotland.

I have to confess that if I had been around in 1843 I would
have been part of the Disruptions and joined the Free Church. I am not entirely sure that if I had been
around in 1900 I would have chosen not to join the new union that formed the
United Free Church.

However, with the insight of history we know the United Free
Church of 1900 rejoined the established church in 1929, and by and large its evangelical
ethos was lost. It was, therefore, the
Hebridean fringe that maintained the true evangelical and Reformed succession, In the providence of God he “chose what is
low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing
things that are” ( 1 Cor 1:28)

This remnant was preserved, but perhaps the purpose of God was
that through this original remnant evangelical Presbyterianism might reseed the
whole of Scotland. Despite its
detractors the Free Church is no longer a highland church restricted to the
areas of the Gàidhealtachd. It is now as
much a lowland non-Highland church as a Highland body. Indeed, at the very time the Church of
Scotland risks so alienating its remaining Highland congregations that they
will leave the denomination, the Free Church is going in the opposite direction
by expanding its outreach in central Scotland.
The Free Presbytery of Glasgow and Argyll this week were discussing our new
church plants in Stirling and Govan,
Glasgow. Someone described it as “exciting”,
and I concur.

How much more exciting it would be if our evangelical brethren
within the national church instead of forming yet another pressure group to
slow or reverse the apostasy in the Church of Scotland which despises them ,
their theology and their sexual ethics, were to join with us in taking forward
the work and ministry of a truly national evangelical Presbyterian body.

Friday, 5 December 2014

Who
are Members of the True Church?

Westminster Confession (OPC Modern Language Version)

1. The
catholic (that is, universal) church, which is invisible, consists of all the
elect who have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ its head.
This church is his bride, his body, and the fullness of him who fills all in
all.

2.The visible church, which is also catholic (that is, universal) under
the gospel (that is, not confined to one nation, as it was before under the
law), consists of all those throughout the world who profess the true religion,
together with their children. It is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
house and family of God, outside of which there is no ordinary possibility of
salvation.

3. To
this universal, visible church Christ has given the ministry, oracles, and
ordinances of God for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life,
to the end of the age. For this purpose he makes these means effectual by his
own presence and Spirit, according to his promise.

4.
This universal church has been sometimes more and sometimes less visible.
Particular churches, which are members of this universal church, are more or
less pure to the extent to which the doctrine of the gospel is taught and
embraced, the ordinances are administered, and public worship is performed more
or less purely in them.

OR The
Moderator of the Church of Scotland:

He
said: "I am fed up with the Church of Scotland publishing annual
statistics which highlight a decline in membership when the truth about the
number of people who belong to our faith communities is, in reality, quite
different. I want, therefore, to open the New Year with a very serious
challenge for the Church of Scotland.”

"Here, however, is the real challenge – it
is to redefine membership in a way that allows us to include women and men,
young and old who do not fit the post-second world war model of membership with
which we are so familiar.”

"That
pattern does not resonate with the vast majority of those who are 50 and
younger and who will never buy into the kind of Church which sits so
comfortably with me and my way of expressing my Christian faith.” http://tinyurl.com/mtebuee

So
this new category of virtual digital membership will embrace those who never
attend church services on the Lord’s Day (contrary to Heb 10:25). For those who know the Church of Scotland, we
will say, “Nothing new here, then.” A
failing church fiddling statistics!

About Me

With degrees in both philosophy and theology, I have lived and worked in the UK, West Africa (working in theological education) and the USA. As a Teaching Elder I served for 19 years in the Church of Scotland and 4 years in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (USA). I am a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and a member in St Andrews Free Church, Fife.

I am married to my wonderful wife Aileen, who has supported and moulded me over 40 years of marriage - an ongoing project that may yet pay dividends, although it requires great patience on her part.